Now
by amsallinger
Summary: 2013: Riley Matthews tossed her graduation cap in the air. As she turned her back to Abigail Adams, she also turned her back to the feelings she had for a certain someone. Feelings she ignored until it withered. 2018: Riley's best friend, Maya Hart, presents her with a second chance under the guise of a new job. A second chance at someone she thought she'll never see again.


**A/N: HEY, GUYS! So, if you came here because you've read my story "Within the Pages," this is the story I was talking about in a few of my A/N's there. And yes, it has Joshaya in it, for those who are wondering. This also focuses on the story of the band, The Monochrome Blond, that had been mentioned a lot in WTP. If I wasn't using the same characters, they would've existed in the same universe. However, since both stories contain the same GMW characters, let's just say this happened in a parallel universe from "Within the Pages." Did it make sense? I hope I did.**

 **But for those of you who _didn't_ read WTP, welcome! Especially, the Rucas shippers. This is the first time I'll be writing this couple with them as the main pairing. This is a story that resulted from an idea I got from events/people that had happened in my life. I'm not going to include the _exact_ experiences, I'm just going to tweak it a little so I wouldn't really be "exposing" my life.**

 **Then, for all of you, I just want to let you know that this is a teaser. I don't have a plot yet, but I _have_ written the first chapter and halfway through the second chapter. Since college is starting up next Monday, I'm not sure how regularly I can focus on this story. I will try, though. I WILL TRY MY BEST. I promise.**

 **Anyway, enjoy this teaser!**

* * *

 _ **Prologue: A Million Ringing Bells**_

Shutting the door closed with her foot, Riley heaved a sigh of exhaustion as she pulled at her scrunchie to let her long, brown hair shake loose. She'd just worked through the longest shift she'd ever done at Serita, the restaurant where she worked at, and couldn't ask for anything better than plopping down on her worn couch and allowing herself to relax. Maybe she'd even whip out the slice of cheesecake she'd been attempting to ignore for days and put on a classic 80's movie.

Riley kicked her sneakers off of her feet while her eyes wandered around the apartment. She noted that the couch looked disheveled like someone had been lounging on it and when they left, they couldn't be bothered to fluff up the throw pillows again.

 _Classic Maya Hart_ , she thought.

Then, she heard clanging noises coming from the kitchen.

"Maya?" Riley called.

"No, it's Belinda!" Maya hollered, referring to the lady ghost that she and Riley jokingly swore was haunting the hallways of the eleventh floor, which was the floor their apartment was on.

Riley rolled her eyes and followed Maya's voice to the kitchen. She caught her in the midst of preparing dinner. She sat on one of the kitchen stools, placed her backpack on the counter, and watched her best friend do her thing. Maya had always been the better cook between the two of them, so she'd automatically taken it upon herself to be the headmaster of the pots and pans. Furthermore, Maya was always the first one to come home from work. She thought it made sense if she would be the one in charge of dinner, which Riley was eternally grateful for.

"I didn't expect you to be home. I thought you'd still be out with Josh around this time," Riley said after noting that it was well past nine in the evening.

Josh was Maya's newfound love interest. The two met at the grocery store just down the block from Maya and Riley's apartment complex and they hit it off since. Maya never stopped talking about Josh that Riley felt like she knew the guy her whole life.

Maya shrugged her shoulders. "I got caught up at work this afternoon, then realized I had _tons_ of errands to run for Shawn's new project, so I had to do a raincheck. I just got home as well, so dinner won't be ready until later," she answered. "Besides, as much as I _love_ spending time with Josh, I do want to have some alone time with my best friend, too, especially when I have some news."

Riley slouched in her chair. "It better be good because I could _definitely_ use one tonight."

Maya swiveled around to face Riley, a concerned look on her face. "Who did you wrong, honey?"

"I just said goodbye to half of my income—Serita's closing down," Riley announced. "Apparently, the restaurant hasn't been doing well for a long time now, so Serita has officially declared bankrupt. Well, technically she still _has_ some bills left in her pockets, just not enough to fund the business anymore. I guess my 'Around the Globe Extravaganza' would have to wait a lot longer now, huh?"

"That sucks." Maya placed two raw salmon fillets on the grill before she strode toward Riley. Despite her recent comment, she had an unmistakably knowing grin on her face. It was one that Riley had grown very familiar with, the kind where she knew she'd done a good job and was pretty proud of herself. "How about the studio? How's that going along?" Maya queried, her eyes glinting in utter mischief.

Riley's eyebrows crinkled, befuddled as to why Maya was suddenly asking about her job as a studio photographer. The same with her job as a waitress, Maya already knew what it was like there day in and day out. "Oh, you know," Riley replied nevertheless, breathing out a sigh. "The usual. Families walking in to get pictures of them now that the babies are all grown up— _more_ babies, sometimes, believe it or not. Then, there are the couples that are there for their anniversary pictures and—"

"Would you be willing to leave it, say, for two months?" Maya interrupted, resting her elbows on the counter directly across from Riley.

"Maya, I just lost my job at Serita. I can't afford to leave the studio now."

"You didn't even let me finish."

Riley gestured for her to lay everything she needed to say on the table.

Maya straightened up, tending to the salmon fillets to test whether the bottom part wasn't sticking to the grill. She muttered something about how she should've baked the fish in the oven instead of grilling it before she said, "I had a meeting today at work. If I recall correctly, there's an open spot that matches correspondingly to your job description. We already live together, Riles, don't you want to work with me, too? Your charming best friend?"

"Wait—what? Are you serious?" Riley asked, getting excited.

Maya worked as an assistant to a music producer at a record label company in Manhattan. The label was not as massive as the ones in Los Angeles, but they already had up and coming bands under their wings. The music industry—particularly the scene in which the label associated itself with—was beginning to recognize GMW Records as a promising label.

"So, are you up for working with me or not?" Maya asked. "Just so you know, this opportunity would be extremely beneficial for funding your 'Around the Globe Extravaganza' dream."

"Hold on," Riley said, watching as Maya flipped the salmon fillets to get the other side cooked. After, she heated up a new pan to start on the vegetables. "Why are you looking for a photographer? Does your boss needs his employees' pictures taken for a bulletin board or something?"

Maya shook her head. "There's a new band that signed to GMW Records just a week after they broke away from their previous record company. The band said they didn't feel like they had full creative control with their music, and they needed a change desperately. Their debut album kept getting put off because of the constant disagreements between the band and the management, and it pissed the band off because they kept 'letting their fans down,'" Maya explained with matching grand hand gestures. "But anyway, Shawn decided to take the band under his care and make them first priority."

"So a photographer is needed to take pictures of the band now that they're under a new record label? Like, maybe a group photo they could use for when they announce the new partnership?" Riley questioned for clarification.

Maya smirked. Her best friend didn't know what was coming for her. "Darling, I'm not even done yet," she informed, placing a hand over the pan to test the heat. Once she decided it was hot enough, she poured all the chopped vegetables into the pan and began stirring. "So you know how it works, right? I disappear for about two months to work alongside Shawn in whatever dimension he brings his bands to for complete isolation so they can focus on their music. In short, I'm going to be off the grid again and this time I'm taking you with me. Shawn is looking for a photographer that he can temporarily hire to, you know, follow the band around and take pictures of them. It's to keep their social media running with professional-looking content while they're on the two-month retreat."

Riley's excitement had gone above and beyond at that point. Just imagining being away from the hustle and bustle of New York for a full two months was making her want to start packing right in that instant. Complete isolation, as Maya had put it. She'd gotten used to her best friend's disappearances over the course of the time they'd been living together, and Maya never failed to come back looking all sprightly and revitalized. Those retreats did her well—maybe it could do Riley some good, too. Moreover, she just lost her job at Serita and studio life was getting too boring. What could go wrong with following and photographing a band for two months straight?

"Please don't tell me you're thinking of saying no," Maya said.

Riley shook her head. "No—I mean, I'm _not_ thinking of saying no."

"Oh, thank heavens," Maya replied in an exaggerated manner, "because I already showed Shawn your portfolio and he's _very_ impressed."

"What do you mean?"

"We'll talk money tomorrow. Be at the office by eight." Maya sent Riley a wink before she turned away once more. There was still one _very specific_ detail she had yet to tell her best friend, but she figured she'd let her arrive at that particular point herself.

"Oh, God," Riley muttered under her breath. She gave her forearm a good pinch, testing to see if she was dreaming or not. When she realized that everything that was happening to her at the moment was her _actual_ reality, a wide grin spread across her features.

Riley had always ventured into the photography industry with the clear goal of becoming a music photographer that travels all over the globe to discover and photograph the local artists. Music and photography had always been her ultimate passions, and there was nothing else that Riley would rather do than to share, through her own lenses, the different kinds of music and how a country's culture perceive it. Given that there were published texts that could easily tell her everything she needed to know, Riley nonetheless believed that she'd grasp the knowledge better if she would personally hear the backstories from the locals themselves. There were still people out there—people from her own generation—whose opinions weren't printed in books for everyone to peruse. Riley would love to hear from them.

Her parents didn't like it when she told them that a traveling music photographer was what she wanted to do with her life. They thought it wasn't a stable job. According to them, Riley would be disbursing more money than earning them. Still, she continued to pursue her dream. In order to create a platform for herself, Riley attended countless live shows to gather as much audience as she possibly could. However, despite the four-thousand followers she'd accumulated on Instagram from photographing every band that came to her city, it still didn't prove to be a stable moneymaker (though she wouldn't admit _that_ to her parents). Hence, the reason why she decided to be a studio photographer by day and a waitress by night. Both jobs paid fairly—it both allowed her to stow small funds in her 'Around the Globe Extravaganza' glass jar—but it was still a recurring dream of Riley's to venture out onto the world and do what she really wanted to do.

Riley was taken out of her stupor when Maya nudged her hand with the fork she was handing to her. She shook her head and turned to her best friend, taking the fork from her grasp. "What's the band called, by the way?" she questioned as Maya took her seat beside her. "Maybe I could get a head start. You know, listen to their music, get to know their names and their history . . ."

Maya smirked in a way that further subjected Riley into whatever mischief she'd schemed. Riley realized right then that Maya had done something behind her back, and she knew she was going to pay for it. How exactly? _That_ she didn't know yet.

"Oh, honey . . ." Maya said before pausing dramatically, prolonging the moment on purpose.

"What?" Riley prodded.

Maya stifled a ditzy giggle. She'd meddled with Riley's life various times before, but _this_ had to be the best work she'd ever done. "I think you're already quite familiar with them. It's actually part of the reason why I recommended you to Shawn—I thought the six of you could use a little reunion. A blast from the past, so to say. They're called The Monochrome Blond . . . does the name ring a bell to you?"

Riley's eyes widened at the revelation, looking at her best friend with a horrified expression. The band name _did_ ring a bell. In fact, a _million_ ringing bells were going off at the same time inside Riley's head. Panic began to settle in her stomach, wounding its claws around her insides and twisting them, making her nauseous. Suddenly, her healthy dinner of grilled salmon and vegetables didn't look so appetizing anymore.

 _It can't be_ , Riley thought. _Maya would never . . ._

"That's right, sweetheart," Maya said mockingly. "It's going to be high school all over again. I'm sure you won't mind seeing Lucas, considering that your unspoken feelings for him had already seen its tragic end five years ago."

Riley was unable to move. The fork Maya handed to her minutes ago hung in midair. Her chest felt tight as memories after memories—all of them, bittersweet—came flooding back to her mind.

The crowded hallways of her high school . . .

The C212 classroom . . .

The dreadful Battle of the Bands that took place during her senior year . . .

"Riles?" Maya called, her voice low. "It _did_ end . . . right?"

Riley wished she had a clear answer to give to her.

* * *

 **And there you have it! I hope you all liked this teaser, and if you want to read the first chapter, just let me know and I might put it up for you guys. I can't promise there will be more after that, though. Like I said, this whole story is still underdeveloped. I'm still working on the plot, and with college starting again, I might not focus on it that much.**

 **But I still wanted you guys to get a taste of what's to come after "Within the Pages."**

 **Thanks for reading and let me know what you think!**


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